In late November, Shonda (threw) a fundraiser at our home for the SHADE foundation. Mr. Colangelo and our G.M., Joe Garagiola Jr., (attended). The event raised huge money but also features a pretty surreal turn of events… (O)n the day of the event the media found out that Terry Francona was the front-runner for the Sox managerial opening. That meant I would be open to Boston as a potential suitor if that opportunity presented itself.

The next part I can remember is the knock at our door on Tuesday morning. I open the door—T-shirt, shorts, flip flops—and there stands a guy who looks to me to be about 17 years old. “Hello, I’m Jed Hoyer, Assistant to the General Manager of the Boston Red Sox.”

I received two letters during these negotiations. I think the first one was a sincere thank you for the opportunity to (negotiate), and the second was a letter from Bill James, speaking directly to me about the fact that Fenway was far from a ‘hitters park’ and that statistical research showed I would perform much better in Fenway than I had in Bank One in most cases.

Regardless of the content of any of this, the first thought that hit me was, “Classy.” The Red Sox were serious and they knew how to show that in a meaningful way. I was impressed to say the least.

I started to get a feel that I’d be much more open than I originally thought.

(On Tuesday), Jed Hoyer, Larry Lucchino and Theo Epstein (met with) Shonda and I… We all sat in our formal living room for the first day. There was a lot of ‘bringing up to speed’ done on the team’s part. Theo went out of his way to show me their ‘tech,’ how they scouted and the tools with which their players were already equipped and the tools with which they were going to be equipped going forward… This was a crucial piece of the puzzle for me professionally. I had always done this work on my own… Now they were able to offer in-house services…”.

(Then) I was presented with Bill James’ research. Fenway was in fact a much ‘friendlier’ park for pitchers than I had thought…

A weird occurrence As we were getting settled into the living room my cell phone rang. It happened to be a G.M. of another team. Basically, I was asked if I was in discussions with the Sox—which I was—and what the status of those talks was. I didn’t offer much insight other than to say we were talking. The G.M. told me that his team did not want me to sign with the Red Sox and whatever could be done to stall the negotiations and run out the deadline would be much appreciated. I was also told this team would have a deal in place the minute we hit that deadline and would offer a better deal than whatever was being tabled.

The first day of negotiations saw an exchange of offers, with Larry Lucchino not real excited about my stance at $13 million and me making it clear to them that number was pretty much concrete… I didn’t want the most possible dollars, far from it. I knew what we were asking for was well within the parameters of reason. The first day ended with us pretty much as far apart as we started. I think the more crucial piece was that Theo and I worked on many of the ’side’ (issues) in the contract while the bigger piece, the salary and years, plodded along.

My 2001 World Series trophy was on the mantle in the room where we were sitting… I said, “Look, let’s be clear. You are bringing me to Boston, or wanting to, to win one of those,” and I pointed to the trophy. “I’ve proven I can get outs in October, I’ve proven I can beat the Yankees in October, you guys haven’t, I get that. This contract, all of it, is centered on one event, beating the Yankees and winning the World Series, period. I am telling you that if you make this happen, I’ll hold up my end, my word on that.”

Shonda and I spoke that first night and I think we both felt cautiously optimistic. We both were over initial pieces that we thought would stop us. This was an organization that was not up to speed with the Diamondbacks in taking care of the really meaningful parts, the players’ families and many of the ‘little things’ that were becoming more prevalent in the game. But they recognized this and were putting immense time, money and effort into those very things as we were speaking. That mattered a lot to us.

(That night I received an) email that pointed me to a Web site called “The Sons of Sam Horn”… I logged into the site and started to read this long thread centered around the possible trade to bring me there. It was pretty powerful stuff… These were obviously fans with intense interest and passion for the hometown nine. Very different than Arizona and Philadelphia… (There) was a post by someone talking about their Thanksgiving dinner. They were going to say a prayer that this worked out. Look, I’m human, as human as they come and I have all the warts and faults everyone else has. But the thought of someone — or more than one someone — praying that Curt Schilling gets traded to their hometown team at a Thanksgiving dinner was mind boggling. We were blown away at that concept.

(I logged onto the site and) spent like an hour or two that night just talking baseball with these people. For the most part there was little ‘idolizing’ going on, which made it a lot more enjoyable. They were asking serious and intelligent questions about the current situation. I didn’t give too much insight other than to say Boston was a serious player in our minds, and that the team had come fully prepared and we were incredibly impressed with everything up to this point.

The Yankees presented me with a very serious chance at winning another ring, if not more than one. Philly offered a ton of familiarity and comfort and a fan base I loved to pitch for. Boston, on the other hand, offered me a chance to be part of something no other team could lay claim to: Making history. Eighty-six years of futility. Being a part of a team that got over that hump was potentially a pretty cool thing.

Theo and Jed arrived on Wednesday and we started talking pretty quickly. The talks went on throughout the day and it became very clear that there was not going to be a lot of movement on their end.

The team did not want to go four years, we did. I told her that if they were being true to their word, and that winning the World Series was the key piece in all of this — and if we were being true to ours and promising them if they made this deal I’d help be a part of delivering that — if those two things were believed on both ends, why not make the fourth year an option keyed by that actually taking place? If I come to Boston, and we win a World Series during this contract, the fourth year would be guaranteed at $13 million.

The other major, and I mean major, piece in play at this point was the no-trade clause. Boston didn’t do no-trades and I didn’t do a contract without them. Manny Ramirez had a ‘best-case’ no-trade. That meant that Manny did not have a no-trade, but rather would get the best no-trade clause of anyone else on the team… There was pretty much no room for them to maneuver, and that was a bad thing… I asked for Larry Lucchino’s word, and he gave it to me, that I would not be traded during this deal. To seal that I asked him to shake on it, and Shonda took a picture. I took his word, and they remained true to their word, I might add. That was my no-trade clause in Boston.

All things aside, the overall picture really didn’t change. We had pretty much every single detail ironed out, and agreed to, but we still remained too far apart. Theo said they had gone as far as they could, I said the same.

(On Thanksgiving Day, we ate and watched football). Things were going badly as far as the deal was concerned. I really felt good about Theo, Jed, the Sox and almost everything else, but length and total contract were just not going to move it appeared. Late in the day was the first time I seriously expected the deal to not get done…

I received phone call No. 3 from the team waiting in the wings. At this point I was pretty honest in replying I didn’t think it was going to happen. I was once again told that was OK, there would be a team and a deal waiting the following day. I’m not going to lie here, I was uncomfortable about this.

(I called Garagiola) and told him I didn’t believe a deal would be done in time and that the trade would not happen. He responded with what amounted to exactly what I never expected. He said, “Hey, that’s OK by me. If we don’t get this done then we go into next season with Schilling and a healthy Johnson again, I can live with that.”

We had until midnight that evening, but about 30 minutes before the deadline I was informed that the deadline had been extended by MLB… (we realized that) the only reason this deadline would have
been asked for by Boston was that the ownership had changed their stance.

I ended up back on SOSH that night for what seemed like an all-nighter. Lots of banter back and forth and some pretty memorable quotes were thrown around.

Friday was, well, fast. Everything happened in a flash. Larry was back in the mix and Theo and Jed arrived early. It didn’t take long to iron out the changes they’d offered, which were very much in line with our initial asks, and we fleshed out a few more details and then shook hands. I was officially a Boston Red Sox. Wow.

The only crime for me would have been not being able to experience this place at the end of my career. Every player should be able to experience what it is that Boston has, at least once in their careers, because after 23 years of professional baseball and a life spent being a huge sports fan, I can say with some clarity and perspective there is absolutely nothing like it.